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Mole cricket: how to recognise and treat it

Pest

Mole cricket — Photo: Jacek Proszyk, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Symptoms

Seedlings and young plants wilt and die because their roots or stems have been eaten below the soil surface.
Finger-thick tunnels just below the surface; seedbeds look rumpled, especially in damp, rich, well-watered soil.
Potato tubers, root crops and rhizomes are gnawed, often with neat round holes.

Organic treatment

Water the beneficial nematode Steinernema carpocapsae into moist soil, following the supplier's instructions.
Encourage natural enemies — birds, shrews, moles and ground beetles.
In late spring and early summer dig out the egg nests (about the size of a dove's egg, some 10 cm deep) where you find the tunnels, and destroy them.

Chemical treatment

Use only a bait or soil insecticide that is registered for mole crickets in your country and allowed in vegetable beds; follow the label dose and pre-harvest interval.

Reference information, not a guarantee. Read and follow the label of any product: dose, safety and the days to wait before harvest.

Prevention

Dig the soil deeply in autumn to destroy tunnels and expose the insects.
Avoid keeping the soil constantly wet — mole crickets favour damp, rich, irrigated ground.
Check new beds and seedbeds for surface tunnels in spring, when mating and egg laying begin.

Sources

Figures checked against these sources.